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I'm stumbling around, no flashlight, hoping no low-hanging branch puts an eye out before I get a good look at the owl.

I know he's there. We all do. The stealthy raptor had momentarily revealed itself against the stars as it flitted to a new perch in the oak-and-juniper woodland in southeastern Arizona. Now our guide is trying to lure it into a skeletal dead tree, the better to light it up for clear viewing.

"Everybody stand still," he says. After a moment, he thumbs the "play" button on the screen of his iPod. A series of short hoots comes from the small speaker in his other hand, filling the shadows between the trees.

We wait.

Silence. Stillness.

He plays the recording again.

A cicada hums. Leaf litter crunches as someone shifts their weight. But no movement overhead.

The guide shines his light into the top of a thickly foliated oak. With his acute tracker's eye and decades of experience, he knows what to look for. Me, this is my first time birding, and it's been a decade or so since my vision was anywhere near acute, so while I'm dutifully scanning the treetop, I'm operating on faith.

Another round of calls, but the bird won't budge. So we put aside our binoculars and start heading back the way we came, a bit randomly until we pick up the dirt road we'd charged off of in pursuit of the owl.

In a few minutes the 13 of us are back at the Cave Creek Ranch hotel in Portal, Ariz., discussing the night's doings. Some of the discussion is on the not-quite-seen bird, identified as a western screech owl, but most is on the earlier find of the night: an adolescent whiskered screech owl who couldn't have been more cooperative, offering easy viewing as he sat fully illuminated on a dead juniper branch for perhaps 10 minutes while cameras clicked and we moved about to view his huge yellow eyes and mottled gray feathers from different angles.

Unfortunately, we would have nothing like that kind of luck in the second half of this trip, catching only a brief look at a great horned owl in an abandoned cotton shed on the dusty flatlands of nearby Rodeo, N.M. Such is the lesson of birding for the uninitiated: Nature has the last word, no matter how well you plan and how hard you work.

And work hard we had. This weeklong trip, set up by High Lonesome Bird Tours, centered on one of the prime birding destinations in North America. In the southeastern corner of Arizona, a confluence of desert, mountain, grassland and riparian habitats watered by monsoon rains creates a hotbed of biodiversity. Leading the charge was our guide, who brought a big reputation, preternaturally keen vision and hearing, and the improbable name of Wezil Walraven.

So while the owl jackpot was never hit, a host of songbirds and raptors showcased the region's overflowing catalog of life: deer, pronghorn antelope and other mammals, several kinds of rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions, jewel-like beetles and flamboyant moths. Our paths included a trudge up a freshly washed-out dirt road to see an owl and a host of hummingbirds, another sojourn deep into a pristine canyon on the Army's Fort Huachuca, and numerous stabs into the woods of the Chiricahua Mountains behind Portal.

•••

The tour starts before it even starts.

From the airport in Tucson, we wend our way southeast in a couple of vans, watching the mesquite scrub slowly open up into grassland as we climb in altitude.

Suddenly, Walraven brings the van to a halt, dead in the middle of the road, then vaguely pulls onto the shoulder. What the heck's going on? He brings up his binoculars, scans for a moment, nods, then throws the van in reverse and zips a few hundred feet back to a dirt side road. "Botteri's sparrow," he says as he bails out of the driver's seat, iPod and speaker in hand. As we follow, I'm thinking: Going 50 mph on a cloudy day and watching the road, this guy can not only spot a 6-inch, grayish-brown bird on the wing, but can ID it down to the species? Are you kidding me?

And what's this bird's big deal? It's just a sparrow, right? I can see a bunch of them in my back yard any day of the week.

Related Links

A juvenile Mexican spotted owl in Miller Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE
Birders watch a yellow-eyed junco chick on the ground in the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, Ariz., in July 2012. From left are Sandy Komito, David Comfort and Diana Fruguglietti. COURTESY OF SHARON HESSE
A lesser goldfinch spotted in the Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve near Patagonia, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE
A roadrunner near Sierra Vista, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE
Beyer's scarab beetle seen near the Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista, Ariz., in July 2012 COURTESY OF SHARON HESSE
Birding guide Wezil Walraven addresses a tour group while searching for birds in Cochise County, Ariz., in July 2012. He's holding an IPod with recorded bird calls, with a portable speaker. The calls are used to attract birds. COURTESY OF SHARON HESSE
Margie Hesse and Edmund Chard scan for birds during a bird-watching tour near Sierra Vista, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF SHARON HESSE
A butte forms part of the wall of Cave Creek Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE
A black-chinned hummingbird plucks nesting material at a bird-viewing pavilion at Beatty's Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon hear Sierra Vista, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE
A gila monster at the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge near Douglas, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE
A sphinx moth in southeastern Arizona. COURTESY OF SHARON HESSE
A beetle in southeastern Arizona. COURTESY OF SHARON HESSE
A whiptail scorpion near portal, Ariz., in July 2012. COURTESY OF MARGIE HESSE

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